I didn’t get it. (Actually, I can fly, but don’t tell anyone.) I did get a part,
though. My official title was Tree # 4. I had no lines. I didn’t even get a
name, like maple or birch or oak. My role was to just stand there, hold
my arms out above my shoulders, wiggle my fingers, and look like a tree.
There was no mention of my name in the program they handed out. There
were no bouquets of roses given to me on opening or closing night. I
didn’t get a backstage room with a star or leaf on the door, and there was
no cast party celebrating my performance. You know what? I loved it!
Here’s why: I knew what was needed; my role was clear and it wasn’t too
complicated. In short, I knew what I was there to do. Many of us don’t.
Something changes for many of us after we leave elementary school.
We try to make ourselves the hero or the victim of every story.
Something goes wrong and we want to be the victim; something goes
right and we want to make ourselves the hero. It doesn’t seem to matter
which it is as long as we make it all about us. But if we make everything
about us, it’ll never be about Jesus. What I’m coming to realize is we’re
not the heroes and we’re not the victims of all the stories happening
around us. We’re just Tree # 4.
I wasn’t the hero for getting the guy an ankle bracelet. I wasn’t the
victim because it cost me a bundle. I was just doing the kind of thing
Jesus said people who are trying to become love do. I was just being Tree

4 in this jail guy’s life.

Even when we do it right, often we don’t land it right. Here’s what I
mean: Jesus knew some of us would be tempted to tell everyone who
would listen about all the things we’d done. He talked about religious
people standing on street corners, but He was really talking about guys
like me. Maybe He was talking about you too. He said if we made a big
deal about what we’d done now, hoping to get someone to clap, we would
have had our reward. We don’t need to be the hero in everyone’s story.
Jesus already landed that part. When you do something for Jesus while
He appears to be hungry or sick or thirsty or strange or naked or in jail,
don’t mess it up by making a big deal out of it. I once heard someone say,